I’m taking an intro Game Development course online (it’s well known that I hate online courses in general) and here I am on what amounts to day three and I’m struggling.

Do this Stuff. Don’t worry, it’s easy.

Instructor:”So, you just need to make up this data tree thing with nodes and identifiers and stuff… look, just do it and get back to me. Here’s an outline:

1. Each node has an ID property which is unique number identifying the node
2. Each node as a Report() method that will print to the console it’s ID and if its a leaf or not
3. When created, the tree has a single node, the root
4. The tree has a SplitLeafs() method which will cause all leafs to create two children
5. The tree has a VisitAll() method which will visit every node and call the node’s Report() method
6. The tree has a LeafReport() method which call Report() on just the leaf nodes
7. In your main() method in Program.cs/Main.cs, you have the following:
   1. Create a tree
   2. Call VisitAll() on the tree
   3. Call SplitLeafs() on the tree
   4. Call LeafReport() on the tree
   5. Call SplitLeafs() on the tree
   6. Call VisitAll() on the tree”

OK…

Me: “Um, OK. I don’t really know what this is, but if you say it’s easy, I’m sure that I can figure it out.”

Instructor:”Got it yet?”

Arghh!!!

Me: “Arghh… Let’s see: Tree class and Node class… How do I instantiate these things?

The root has no parent, but has children…”

Instructor:”Yeah. You totally have it. Let’s talk about the completed project tomorrow.”

Me:”Oh crap. So, the tree just gets made once, but then it makes the nodes…? Each node will hold some data: let’s keep that simple. Make it an integer.

What the hell’s a leaf?

Ughh. Simple isn’t simple enough.” 

Feeling the heat now?

Instructor:” A leaf if just a node. It has a parent, but no children.”

Me:  “And, how to we do this splitLeaf thing?”

Cripes! instantiate two children from each leaf….how… to…?The pain!

Instructor:” Look, it’s just a couple methods within the class. write up a couple setters and a couple getters and then one or two other methods to do the work.”

Look, I don’t mean to tighten the screws or anything, but this needs to be done and uploaded onto the Google+ document space…

I’m not kidding. I went from dominating my into C++ class to being a joke in this next class. I’ll try to  deconstruct the problem and post a walkthrough of the general idea if anyone’s interested.

Google+? Wha…..